Pakistan: The assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide bomb attack. The leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had just addressed a rally of PPP
supporters in the town of Rawalpindi
when the attack took place. First reports talked of at least 100 killed in the attack, but more recent news put the figure at 20. This murderous onslaught on the PPP came in the
middle of an election campaign where, after years of military dictatorship, the
masses were striving for a change.

Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide bomb attack.

The leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had just addressed a rally of PPP
supporters in the town of Rawalpindi
when the attack took place. First reports talked of at least 100 killed in the attack, but more recent news put the figure at 20.

This murderous onslaught on the
PPP came in the middle of an election campaign where, after years of military
dictatorship, the masses were striving for a change. There was a wave of
support for the PPP, which was sure to win National and provincial assembly elections
that were due to be held on 8 January 2008.

The campaign was gathering
strength, and the PPP Marxist wing was getting enthusiastic support for its
revolutionary socialist message in places as far apart as Karachi
and the tribal areas of Waziristan in the far
north. These elections would have reflected a big shift to the left in Pakistan. This
prospect was causing alarm in the ruling clique. That is what was behind today's
atrocity.

This was a crime against the
workers and peasants of Pakistan,
a bloody provocation intended to cancel the elections that the PPP was sure to
win and to provide the excuse for a new clampdown and the possible
reintroduction of martial law and dictatorship. It is a counterrevolutionary
act that must be condemned without reservation.

Who was responsible? The identity
of the murderers is not yet known. But when I asked the comrades in Karachi, the reply was
immediate: "it was the mullahs". The dark forces of counterrevolution in
countries like Pakistan
habitually dress up in the garb of Islamic fundamentalism. There are even
rumours in circulation that Benazir was shot from a mosque, although the
western media insist that the murder was the result of a suicide bomber.

Whatever the technical details of
the assassination, and whoever was the direct agent of this criminal act, the
threads of the conspiracy undoubtedly reach high up. The so-called Islamic
fundamentalists and jihadis are only the puppets and hired assassins of
reactionary forces that ere entrenched in the Pakistani ruling class and the
state apparatus, lavishly funded by the Pakistan Intelligence Services (ISI),
drug barons with connections with the Taliban, and the Saudi regime, always anxious
to support and finance any counterrevolutionary activity in the world.

The war in Afghanistan is having a ruinous effect on Pakistan. The
Pakistan ruling class had ambitions of dominating the country after the
expulsion of the Russians. The Pakistan
army and ISI have been meddling there for decades. They are still mixed up with
the Taliban and the drug barons (which is the same thing). Huge fortunes are
made from the drugs trade that is poisoning Pakistan and destabilizing its
economy, society and politics.

The assassination of Benazir
Bhutto is just another expression of the sheer rottenness, degeneration and
corruption that is gnawing at the vitals of Pakistan. The misery of the masses,
the poverty, the injustices, cry out for a solution. The landlords and
capitalists have no solution to this. The workers and peasants looked to the
PPP for a way out.

Some so-called "lefts" will say:
But Benazir's programme could not have provided the way out. The Marxists in
the PPP are fighting for the programme of socialism - for the original
programme of the PPP. But the masses can only learn which programme and
policies are correct through their own experience.

The January elections would have
given the masses an opportunity to advance at least one step in the right
direction, by inflicting a decisive defeat on the forces of reaction and
dictatorship. Then they would have had the possibility of learning about
programmes and policies, not in theory but in practice.

Now it seems most likely that they
will be denied this opportunity. The purpose of this criminal provocation is
quite clear: to cancel the elections. I have not yet seen the response of the Pakistan
authorities, but it would be unthinkable that the elections could now take
place on 8 January. They will be at least postponed for some time.

What effect will this have upon
the masses? I have just spoken on the phone to the comrades of The Struggle in Karachi, where they have been battling the
reactionary thugs of the MQM in a fierce election campaign. They tell me that
there is a general feeling of shock among the masses. "People are weeping and
women are wailing in their houses: I can hear them now," the comrade said.

But the shock is already turning
into anger: "There is rioting in the streets of Karachi and other cities. People are blocking
the roads and burning tires." That is a
warning to the ruling class that the patience of the masses is now exhausted.
The movement of the masses cannot be halted by the assassination of one leader
- or by a thousand.

The masses always adhere to their
traditional mass organizations. The PPP developed in the heat of the
revolutionary movement of 1968-9, when the workers and peasants came close to
taking power.

The dictator Zia murdered
Benazir's father. That did not prevent the resurrection of the PPP in the
1980s. The forces of state terrorism murdered Benazir's brother, Murtazar. Then
they exiled Benazir and installed a new dictatorship. That did not prevent the
PPP from experiencing a new resurrection when 2-3 million people came onto the
streets to welcome her back.

The masses will recover from the
momentary shock and grief. These emotions will be replaced in time by anger and
the desire for revenge. But what is needed is not individual revenge, but
collective revenge. What is needed is to prepare the masses for a new
revolutionary offensive that will tackle the problems of Pakistan by the roots.

The ruling clique may delay the
date of the elections, but sooner or later they will have to be called. The
reactionaries calculate that the removal of Benazir will weaken the PPP. That
is a serious miscalculation! The PPP cannot be reduced to a single individual.
If that were true. It would have disappeared after the judicial murder of
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

The PPP is not one individual, It
is the organized expression of the will of the masses to change society. It is
the three million who came on the streets to greet Benazir's return. It is the
tens of millions more who were preparing to vote for a change in the January
elections. These millions are now mourning. But they will not mourn forever.
They will find effective ways of struggle to make their voice heard.

The masses must protest the murder
of the PPP leader through a national protest movement culminating in a protest general strike. They must raise the
banner of democracy. Against dictatorship! No more martial law! Call new
elections immediately!

The PPP leadership must not
capitulate to any pressure to delay the elections. Call the national and
provisional elections! Let the people's voice be heard! Above all, the PPP must
return its original programme and principles.

In the PPP's founding programme is
inscribed the aim of the socialist transformation of society. It includes the
nationalization of the land, banks and industries under workers control, the
replacement of the standing army by a workers and peasants militia. These ideas
are as correct and relevant today as when they were first written!

There is nothing easier than to take the life of
a man or a woman. We humans are frail creatures and easily killed. But you
cannot murder an idea whose time has come!